Coin-bank or toy safe.



N0. 670,84l. 1 Patented Mar. 26, I901. M. S. CLARKE.

ODIN BANK DR TOY SAFE.

(Applicqtidn filad Aim 27, 1900.)

(No Model.)

MARCUS S. CLARKE, OF HOUSTON, TEXAS.

COIN-BANK OR TOY SAFE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,841, dated March 26, 1901.

Application filed April 2'7, 1900.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARoUs S. CLARKE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Houston,in the county of Harris and State of Texas, have invented new and useful Improvements in (Join-Banks or Toy Safes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to coin-banks or toy safes for containing boarded coin; It is my purpose to provide an article of this class which can be manufactured at an extremely low cost, which shall be of marked simplicity in construction, and in which coin will be securely contained without possibility of removal save in the legitimate way.

It is a further object of my invention to improve and simplify the construction of this class of articles, whereby the number of parts of which they are composed can be materially reduced and the cost of their production correspondingly diminished.

My invention also comprises other novel and useful features, all of which will be fully explained in the following specification and then particularly pointed out and defined in the claims.

For the purposes of the following description reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective View of a coinbank in which my invention is incorporated. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of a portion of the same to show the interior construction. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the body portion taken on the line 3 3 in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation showing the application of the invention to a modified form of receptacle or body.

The reference-numeral 1 in said drawings indicates the body or coin-containing portion of a coin-bank, which I may construct of metal or any material suitable for such a purpose, such as glass, wood, hard rubber, celluloid, and others. In the present instance the body portion is made of brass by taking an ordinary brass tube of suitable diameter, cutting it to the proper length, and flattening it upon two opposite sides, thereby bringing it to the shape illustrated in Fig. 3. It retains this form throughout until the upper end of the body portion 1 is reached. Here it is flattened still more until a narrow transsupported upon the bearing 5.

Serial No. 14,616. (No model.)

verse portion 2 of each flattened side is brought close and parallel to the similar opposite portion, a narrow space 3 being left between them. In said space 3 is arranged a coin-disk 4 of such diameter and thickness as to practically fill said space withoutinterfering with the free rotary movement of the disk in either direction upon its own axis. To support the disk and provide for this movement, a central bearing 5 is inserted in the adjacent portions 2 of the side walls. The diameter of the disk and the location of the bearing 5 are such that a little less than onehalf the semidiameter of the disk projects above the gently-curved edges of the wall portions 2.

I have shown a bearing for the coin-disk, consisting of an ordinary eyelet, and while this answers every purpose and formsa cheap easily-attached support I do not limit my invention to any specific construction, as I may use an ordinary rivet, as seen in Fig. 4, or any device suitable for the purpose.

The coin-disk 4 is of the thickness of the coins for which the bank is to be used, and a coin-slot 6 is formed therein from the edges of the disk nearly to its center. This slot opens through the edge, and its Width is such that the coin will practically fill the slot, the inner end of which is curved to coincide with the edge of the coin.

The lower part of the coin-disk is partly in a coin -receiver, consisting of fiat semielliptical sides 7, which overlap on the opposite faces of the coin-disk, their ends being The lower end of the receiver hangs a little below the lower edge of the disk. It has a straight edge 8, in which is a coin-slot 9, at the opposite ends of which are rigid connecting portions of the sides 7. The Width of the coin-receiver is less than the diameter of the coindisk 4, so that it is capable of a limited vibration on the bearing 5 between the opposite rounded edges of the body portion 1.

Between the straight lower edge of the coinreceiver and the lower end of the body portion 1 a pin or bar 10 is inserted, its ends supported in the opposite flattened walls, so that it lies rigidly across the center of the interior space at right angles to the coins that enter through the slot 9 in the lower end of the coin-receiver. This bar offers no obstruction to the entrance of a coin; but its presence renders it practically impossible to get a coin that is in the safe to enter the slot 9 in the receiver in order that it may be removed by turning the coin-disk 4 to bring the coin out at the point where it entered. As the coin-slot 9 in the receiver is of the width and thickness of the coin it would be a matter of great difficulty to get a coin to enter it by inverting the safe and shaking it. The presence of the bar 10, however, makes such an attempt Wholly useless and reduces the thief to the crude method of breaking his way in by tearing off the bottom or in some other manner destroying the safe.

My invention is applicable to a bank or safe of any shape and size. As a single example thereof I sometimes use it upon a money-j ug 12 of clay, earthenware, china, or any other material suitable for an article of such a form.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. A coin-bank having its upper end walls flattened and brought near and parallel to each other, a coin-disk having a coin-slot entering its edge, said disk lying in the space -a coin-receiver having opposite walls which overlap the fiat faces of the disk and engage its central hearing at their upper ends, a coinslot being formed in the lower end of the receiver, beneath the coin-disk, substantially as described.

2. A coin-bank having a coin-disk on a central bearing supported in opposite flattened portions of the -wall at the upper end of said bank, a coin -receiver having opposite parallel Walls which overlap on the faces of the disk and have support at their upper ends on the central bearing, the lower end of said coin-receiver having a coin-slot which lies below a coin-slot in the edge of the disk, and a rigid central bar lying below the end of the receiver and at a right angle to the coins entering the bank, substantially as described.

' In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MARCUS 'S. CLARKE.

Witnesses:

OTTO PAPE, NORMAN G. KITRELL, Jr. 

